PHD in 2022: December and Year End Wrap Up

I'm struggling a bit to think clearly.  Benadryl does wonders for allergies, but it also creates a lot of brain fog.  I think the cats, Grad Girls and my mom's, finally got to me yesterday.  Actually it's probably mostly due to my mom's cat.  He decided to sleep next to my head Tuesday night. Grad Girl and I drove back down to my mother's on Tuesday because it would cut 2.5 hours off GG's trip back to college and I needed to pick up some things that wouldn't fit in the car after our Christmas holiday.  At any rate, hopefully I can stick with this post long enough to finish (and hopefully it's mostly readable).  

I've been playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD (Projects Half Done) for the last 4 years. I've yet to earn my PHD, but it's been a good way to be accountable for both finishing up old projects and finishing up anything new that was started during the year.  Here's my end of the year report for 2022. 

There are no updates to the report for December. There were no more finishes, but there was progress on one UFO and two ongoing projects. 

Rhododendron, the Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt along, gained two blocks during December. 

So just one block left to finish and I can start quilt assembly.  This project has come a long way this year, some of the pieces for the blocks hadn't even been assembled yet when the calendar turned over to 2022.  

Rhododendron as of 12/31/2021

My word for 2022 was Progress. I met that with this project even though it's not finished. 

Melodic Mystery, the Meadow Mist Designs 2022 mystery quilt along, was started in October.  I'm still a bit behind, but only by one month. I still need to finish the December clue. 

I have 5 more flower blocks to finish to be caught up. January's clue is probably already out, I've just not had a chance to go check it out.  

There has also been steady progress on the Bonnie Hunter 2022 mystery quilt along, Chilhowie. 

Clue 1 is finished, clue 2 is close, the rest of the clues still need a lot of work.  Even so, I'm happy with all the progress on this project. 

Progress was made on two other UFOs earlier in the year, but then they stalled out. The first was Unity, Bonnie Hunter's stay at home mystery quilt along. 

I finished the last pieced border and final two unpieced borders. The backing has been made and is prepped for quilting.  All that's left is to get the Unity top prepped.  There are a lot of loose threads on the back of this one and it's just been more than I've wanted to deal with.

The 2021 Meadow Mist Designs Mystery quilt was a new start in 2021 that carried over into 2022.  The quilt top was finished back in November, but I struggled to find a good backing fabric. I finally ordered some.  This is next on the list for quilting once I get Unity out the door.  

In the finished column for the PHD program are Fluorescence and Reactive Intermediates. 

Fluorescence (self designed) was ready to go out for quilting in November of 2021, by February 2022 it was a finished quilt. This quilt is one of my all time favorites.  

Reactive Intermediates was made from the pattern Potions, by Flying Parrot Quilts. The quilt was a gift to Grad Girls undergraduate research advisor.  I started cutting the fabrics for some of the blocks at the end of December 2021. I had to be really disciplined to get this quilt finished for graduation in 2022.  But it got done (the night before, but that still counts).

There were two other projects that were started and then finished in 2022. After Grad Girl moved to Texas, she asked for one more grocery bag as she went down the one she left for her undergrad roommate.  There was request for grocery bags for the undergrad roommates as they were now short too. My Guy had been wanting his own set of bags so we could cut down on the number of plastic bags we were collecting.  

In total I finished seven grocery bags.  The grocery bags got me back in the sewing room after a rough summer of no stitching.  They were quick and fun finishes. Exactly what I needed to get out of my stitching front. 

The other finish was also a start inspired by Grad Girl. She wanted a couple of her favorite embroidery pieces made into pillows. 

I finished these the evening before we moved her to Texas. Last year seemed to be the year for just in time finishes.  Both of us were very happy with how the pillows turned out.  The star of each is her embroidery.  

In summary, I didn't do so hot on the UFO finishes, ending the year with just two. But I did make really good progress on a three others. I finished all of the new starts for 2022, since both Melodic and Chilhowie continue in 2023, those don't count.  Not a stellar year, but considering just how rough the year was, I'm happy to get at least that much done. 

You can see how everyone else did on earning their PHD's in 2022 over at Quilting Gail.  

Best of Life In Pieces for 2022

Just a few more days left of 2022.  I'm ready for a new year, 2022 wasn't one of my better years on several fronts.  I'm hopeful that 2023 will be happier and more productive than this year has been.  Maybe this year more than past years,  it's important to look back at what did go well. Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs is encouraging us to look at the Best of 2022.  

 

Here's my best of list for 2022 for Life in Pieces. 

1. Most Views (368): Still Mostly Here

I took an unannounced break from blogging from early June to late  September this year.  This post was written in response to the many emails in June/July asking how things were going on my end. Thank you to everyone who reached out.  It wasn't a good time for me and I'm not sure I would have have come back to blogging without your encouragement. 

2. Most Comments (22): First Finish of 2022   

Cabins and Fans (Fluorescence) was one of only two finishes for 2022.  The quilt started as my 2017 Rainbow Scrap Project and the setting is self designed.  It's one of my favorite finished quilts.  

3. Most Link Ups for 15 Minutes to Stitch (19 - Weeks 2, 6, 18)

All three weeks had 19 link ups, which is better than the max link ups in 2021 by one.  The average number of link ups for 2022 was 13, which is the same as 2021.  I really appreciate all bloggers who came back to link up after 4 months of hiatus. Thank you!  

4. Most Fun Finish: Finishing Potions

Potions (Reactive Intermediates) was made specifically for Grad Girl's undergraduate research advisor.  I will admit piecing those flasks gave me a few fits, but it was such a fun project to work on. The filling solutions were all pulled from my scrap bins. I had such a good time deciding on the colors and fabrics. 

5. My Favorite Family Photo Challenge Post: Week 34 - A Panorama

It's hard to pick a favorite set of photos from the challenge, but the panorama shots are some of my most favorite from this year.  It's been such a fun family activity because Grad Girl can still participate from college.  It's been interesting to see how we each interpret the prompt each week.  We still have 3 to 4 months of cards left in the deck.  My Guy got a new deck of photo cards for Christmas, so the challenge will continue once this deck is gone.  

That's my Best of Life in Pieces for 2022.  It was a year of real highs and lows for me, I'm hoping that 2023 is more of the highs and a lot less of the lows.  

PHD in 2022: April and May Progress

My work/life balance has been anything but balanced the last couple of months. Hopefully balance will be restored after yesterday.  I turned in the last review summary for the never ending project yesterday at 7 PM.  So hopefully that means I'll have more time for stitching in June.  I've been playing along with Quilting Gail's PHD program for 2022, but didn't have an opportunity to post in April. Here's where my projects stand as of the end of May. 

There was one finish and no starts during the last two months.  Not a bad showing considering just how little stitching I've done since March.  My goal for the year is just to make progress, I can look back and see that there was some for all my active projects. 

Unity (Bonnie Hunter 2020 Quilt Along) is now a finished quilt top

Unity was close to a finished quilt top at the end of March. It didn't take long to finish up adding the borders.  With all the pieces in this quilt, I had a couple of places that didn't lay flat, those have been fixed.  I'm hoping to get this project out for quilting by the end of June.  

Macaron Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs 2021 Mystery Quilt) is assembled.  

Most of the progress on Macaron has happened over the last couple of weeks.  Next step is to add the borders, which always takes longer than I think it should.  

There has also been a bit of progress on The Rhododendron Mystery (Bonnie Hunter 2021 mystery quilt along). 

The hour glass blocks for Rhododendron block B has been my leaders and enders project for the last couple of months. I've been assembling the A blocks as I work on Macaron.  Just 4 more A blocks and 4 more B blocks to finish.  The A blocks will go fast, the B blocks are a lot slower to make.  

Potions (Flying Parrot Quilts) was my second finish for 2022

It was sent out for quilting in March and was back here in April.  But my work project kept me from doing much towards getting it finished.  I pushed hard the Friday before the SIT's graduation to get it finished. The quilt has been gifted to her undergraduate research advisor and he really liked it.  I'm so thankful I was able to stay on track with the piecing part of it. Had I been behind, I'm not sure it would have gotten finished on time. 

That's the progress for April and May. Not as much as I would like, but there was progress in spite of the nutty work schedule.  No point in lamenting the loss of stitching time, things will get done when they get done.  

Linking up with Quilting Gail for the May PHD Progress Report.  

Finishing Potions

It was past time to get back to our normal weekend activities. We managed to have an uneventful and laid back weekend. I wasn't able to scale mount laundry, but we all have enough clean clothes to make it a week. More importantly, I actually got a solid afternoon of stitching in on Sunday.  It's been awhile since I was able to spend more than a few minutes in the sewing room. It definitely felt good to spend some quality time in the sewing room for a change. 

Last weekend was the Scientist in Training's graduation. So I did spend some time in my sewing room that Friday rushing to finish the hand stitching on Potions so the SIT could give it to her undergraduate advisor. The binding was finished just before 8 PM.

Reactive Intermediates (Potions): Pattern by Flying Parrot Quilts
Started December 28, 2021, Finished May 6, 2022

 

This isn't the best photo. We needed to get on the road early Saturday morning, so I had to go with artificial lighting to get any type of photo of the finished quilt.  

Trudy did a great job with the quilting as usual. 

The background is quilted with a simple meander. The various beakers, flasks and test tubes each have a unique quilting motif of swirls, bubbles or fumes.  I'm really happy with how the quilt turned out. More importantly, so is the SIT. 

The goal was to make the quilt look like a storage cabinet. That's why there is no dark blue border strip on the bottom.  I had to get creative with the binding to keep that look. 

The binding switches from dark blue to the light blue to maintain the look of cabinet legs at the bottom. I wasn't able to get the seam in the binding to match exactly with the seam in the border, but after ripping it out and trying several times, I decided that was as good as it was going to get.  I love the backing fabric. It would be hard to find anything more perfect to go with the front.  

The SIT and I had fun with the label. 

The final version of the label has a message from the SIT in the teal box. Had the never ending audit not happened, I would have finished this is project in April.  I've learned not to stress over being off by a month. In 20 years, one month will not matter at all.  

Reactive Intermediates is finish number 2 for the year. I'm off target by a bit, but hopefully I can get back on track before the end of the year.  

Linking up with Monday Making, Design Wall Monday and Patchwork & Quilts.